iTunes Match makes brief UK debut

Official launch probably imminent

Someone over at Apple HQ will be getting a lump of coal in their stocking after setting iTunes Match live in some European countries, seemingly by accident.

iTunes users in the UK, France and Australia all reported seeing the option to sign up for the cloud-based song matching service but it has since disappeared.

The glad tidings here are two-fold; first, it indicates that an official iTunes Match UK release date is nearing and second it means we now know the UK price: Apple's new service will set you back £21.99 a year.

Matchy Matcherson

However, before the Cupertino pulled the plug users that managed to sign up for the service seemed to be having a few issues completing the sign-up process, which may mean there are still a few bugs to be ironed out.

iTunes Match is a cloud-based music streaming service – but rather than giving you access to any and every music track there is like Spotify does, it scans your existing music collection and gives you access to high quality versions of the tracks stored on Apple's servers.

Any track you have on your hard drive is counted, even those of slightly dubious origin. Some have criticised Match because it means you get access to pristine tracks you haven't necessarily paid for, while others argue that it's a way for record labels to claw back some revenue from pirated tracks.